It is going to redo exactly the journey of 22,000 kilometers that Marco Polo, the Venetian merchant, described in his book The motto of the world eight centuries ago: from Venice in Italy, to reach Beijing in China, on foot, by the Silk Road. In 1271, Marco Polo was 17 years old. Vienna Cammarota is 72 years old. She left on Tuesday April 26, surrounded by journalists and above all by supporters waving flags with the word “pace” (peace)the leitmotif of his trip: go in peace, show that despite conflicts and wars, curiosity, openness, listening and peace always triumph.
Unlike Marco Polo, Vienna Cammarota left alone. She took a backpack, a tent, some food, and a solar panel to charge her satellite phone and smartwatch. A watch that will constantly take his heartbeat and allow him to transmit his data to his doctor in Italy in the event of a problem. For the rest, she relies above all on chance, on encounters, on what is not foreseen. This is what she did in her previous journeys, since Vienna Cammarota has been walking a lot and for a long time. She crossed Italy from north to south, then the Middle East, Palestine and Israel, then Madagascar, Amazonia, Patagonia.
“It was reading Goethe, the German poet, that made me want to walkshe said to the Rhave, to resume the path he traveled and described in his book ‘Voyage en Italie’, then I rediscovered Marco Polo, I traced his route on the map, and I decided to follow himShe will therefore cross around ten countries: Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia, Iran, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and finally China. Her arrival is scheduled for 2025. She will then have 75 years old.
To journalists who are worried about her, she replies: “Of course, fear exists, it is human, but it is less powerful than the desire to see, to discover, to meet, to listen.” Vienna Cammarota invites you to rediscover the true value of time and space, forget the round trips to the end of the world by plane for five days, feel the distances, see the landscapes change on the road, the languages, the smiles, cultures. One question remains: how will she return? She has three years to think about it.